>In the January 5th musing from the Tavern, we blasted the idea of the new naming systems. My ‘mininster of ideas’ came up with an alternative to K-League Classic & K-League: allow the 1st division keep the name they’ve used for years, the K-League AND call the new relegated division the K-League Challenger division. Originally I proposed an easier solution: K-League 1 and K-League 2, but if a brother has to utilize more characters to type out, well then K-League & K-League Challenger could do.

Which leads to my next question: who at the K-League has been reading and stealing ideas from my ‘minister of information’ without crediting him? As Stephen Colbert would say, “Who’s been riding my coat tails!?” Ok…no problem. Life’s too short to get all worked up. I’ll be collecting my licensing fee please!

Now you might say, “wait a moment old cranky Tavern owner, you said “K-League Challenger” while the K-League’s new 2nd division is calling itself the “K-League Challenge.” That’s specifically a 1 letter difference. >> Yes, a distinction, but in this cellphone autocorrection day in age, someone at the K-League probably meant to make it ‘Challenger’ but was phoning in his work that day -literally.

Not that I’d get a lot of revenue from licensing fees from K-League Challenge anyhow, seeing as it is the 2nd tier of pro football in Korea we’re talking about. Even at the first division of the K-League Classic, a number of clubs struggle with meager attendance figures.

In the end, do I approve of the change? I still like K League and K-League.2 instead of the official designation of K League Classic and K League Challenge, but that’s just me. K-Talk sarcastically commented: “Both the K-League Classic and K-League Challenge being abbreviated as KLC is really going to help clear up those confusion issues they were worried about!” They were referring to the official rationale given as to why they were changing the K League to K League Challenge, that there could be mass confusion with people who for years were only familiar with the K League brand as the premier division of pro football in the Republic of Korea. But then, according to that logic, shouldn’t they change the K League Classic and call the 1st division simply as the K League ?

The real question is just how long before the powers that be backpedals further to drop the Classicdesignation and call it what it is: a classic marketing blunder.

This just in: FC Basel just booked their trip to the Europa League Quarter Finals, losing 1-0 to Zenit St. Petersburg, but winning with an aggregate score of 2-1. Some good defending overall, although Park Joo-Ho almost blew it by conceding a penalty kick to Shirokov in the 84th minute: Park accidentally kicked Shirokov at the back post in an attempt to clear the ball. Fortunately, Shirokov’s weak PK down the middle was blocked by Basel’s netminder Sommers.

In English Championship action on Tuesday, Cardiff drew with Leicester City, Kim Bo-Kyung with another game on the bench and no minutes.

Asian Champions League Round 2 group stage results. For more detail on the matches, check out K-Talk’s blog.

Bunyodkor 2 : 2 Pohang Steelers -initial good form for Pohang, but a late comeback from the Uzbek club.

We save the worst news for last: South Korea’s Taeguk Warriors drop to 47th in the newest FIFA world rankings. For comparison, Japan moved up 2 spots to 26th. Austrailia dropped down 2 notches to 39th. Was Shinji Kagawa’s hat trick factored into the equation? Meanwhile, as Shinji was the Asian Player of the Year award recipient last November (for player abroad), the continental co-winner of the award, Lee Keun-Ho, is about to begin his nearly 2 year time in the Sangju/Army team in the relegated K League Challenge division, about to begin this weekend. Cheers.

We’ll have another post dealing with the weekend listings. Stay tuned.

K League Classic

Most recent soccer data here. The system is currently retrieving statistics from data feed.

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Team

P

1

Jeonbuk Motors

34

2

Suwon Bluewings

25

3

Jeju United

24

4

Gyeongnam

22

5

Sangju Sangmu

22

6

Gangwon

20

7

Ulsan

20

8

Pohang Steelers

19

9

Seoul

15

10

Jeonnam Dragons

12

11

Incheon United

8

12

Daegu

7

Most recent soccer data here. The system is currently retrieving statistics from data feed.

May 20, 2018

Seoul

0 - 4

Jeonbuk Motors

Pohang Steelers

1 - 1

Suwon Bluewings

Sangju Sangmu

0 - 0

Jeju United

Incheon United

1 - 1

Ulsan

May 19, 2018

Jeonnam Dragons

1 - 1

Daegu

Gyeongnam

0 - 1

Gangwon

English Premier League

Most recent soccer data here. The system is currently retrieving statistics from data feed.

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Team

P

1

Manchester City

100

2

Manchester United

81

3

Tottenham Hotspur

77

4

Liverpool

75

5

Chelsea

70

6

Arsenal

63

7

Burnley

54

8

Everton

49

9

Leicester City

47

10

Newcastle United

44

11

Crystal Palace

44

12

AFC Bournemouth

44

13

West Ham United

42

14

Watford

41

15

Brighton & Hov…

40

16

Huddersfield Town

37

17

Southampton

36

18

Swansea City

33

19

Stoke City

33

20

West Bromwich Albion

31

Hwang Heechan

Most recent soccer data here. The system is currently retrieving statistics from data feed.

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Team

P

1

Red Bull Salzburg

83

Bundesliga

Most recent soccer data here. The system is currently retrieving statistics from data feed.

#

Team

P

1

Augsburg 1907

0

2

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

0

3

Bayern München

0

4

Borussia Dortmund

0

5

Borussia Mönchengladbach

0

6

Eintracht Frankfurt

0

7

Fortuna Düsseldorf

0

8

SC Freiburg

0

9

Hannover 96

0

10

Hertha BSC

0

11

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim

0

12

1. FSV Mainz 05

0

13

Nürnberg

0

14

RB Leipzig

0

15

Schalke 04

0

16

Stuttgart

0

17

Werder Bremen

0

Kwon Changhoon

Most recent soccer data here. The system is currently retrieving statistics from data feed.

#

Team

P

11

Dijon

48

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The Tavern of the Taeguk Warriors is an online community of Korean football/soccer supporters. We bring you news, analysis and opinion in English about Korean players abroad, youth players and the K League.